Magnus Carlsen takes rapid and blitz titles in Dubai

3364: Shak Mamedyarov v Judit Polgar, world blitz. Black can choose among a6, b5 and Nd7. Which one is the blunder? Illustration: Graphic

Magnus Carlsen badly wanted more titles in Dubai last week after finishing only second on his Norwegian home turf in Stavanger a few days earlier and the 23-year-old world champion did just that in capturing the global crowns in both rapid and blitz, both against very strong fields.

Carlsen led or was close to the lead for most of the marathon blitz course of 21 rounds, and his only major setback came when careless defence allowed the little-known Chinese teenager Lu Shanglei to trap the champion’s king in mid-board. It was the shock of the tournament but it was Carlsen’s only defeat.

Garry Kasparov compared Carlsen’s feat to a tennis player winning grand slam events on hard courts, clay and grass. Although the rapid games with a time limit of 15 minutes per game plus 10 seconds for each move were sufficiently slow for the leading grandmasters in classical chess, it was harder in blitz where each player had only three minutes for the entire game plus two seconds per move.

The gold standard for blitz is Bobby Fischer’s performance in Yugoslavia in 1970, where the time limit was five minutes per player per game with no increment. That was an elite double-rounder of 12 players, including four world champions, and Fischer scored 19/22, winning some impressive games en route, whereas Carlsen’s 17/21 against slightly weaker opposition had a few rocky moments.

But a decade earlier, at the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad, I saw Fischer playing blitz every night in the hotel lounge with Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi and Tigran Petrosian and he was not then their superior. Carlsen wants to keep his triple crown and repeat at rapid and blitz in 2015, so he may yet win his legends match with Fischer. He is also No1 in the classical and blitz ratings but No2 to Italy’s Fabiano Caruana at rapid.

Judit Polgar was the only woman among the 120 players in Dubai and the all-time No1 female produced her usual entertaining performance. She fell into a trap in this week’s puzzle but checkmated the reigning Chinese champion by a zestful attack.